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'' |image= |series= |production=103 |producer(s)= |story= Jim Trombetta |script= Brannon Braga |director= Kim Friedman |imdbref=tt0708943 |guests=Josh Clark as Lieutenant Joseph Carey, Martha Hackett as Ensign Seska and Justin Williams as Crewman Jarvin |previous_production=Caretaker |next_production=Time and Again |episode=VOY S01E03 |airdate=23 January 1995 |previous_release=Caretaker |next_release=Time and Again |story_date(s)=48439.7 (2371) |previous_story=Caretaker |next_story=Time and Again }} Summary Torres is reprimanded by Chakotay after she ends a dispute in engineering by breaking the nose of a Starfleet officer named Carey. But despite her volatile nature, Chakotay has faith in the Klingon woman's skills, and he recommends Torres to Janeway for the position of Chief Engineer. Janeway is surprised, but before she can consider the recommendation, the U.S.S. Voyager is jolted as it enters a region of spatial distortions. A short time later, it comes upon a ship that is trapped in the event horizon of a quantum singularity: the powerful energy field surrounding a collapsed star. While the engineering staff tries to figure out a way to help the other ship, Janeway questions the capability of Chakotay's Maquis officers. Still, she agrees to consider Torres for the engineering slot. Realizing that Voyager doesn't have enough power to rescue the ship on its own, the crew heads away from the singularity to get help, but before long they find themselves heading back toward the same collapsed star. Again Voyager moves away, and again the ship finds itself back where it started. As tensions rise between Maquis and Starfleet crewmembers, Torres works with Carey to figure out what's happening. Noting the peculiar effects of the singularity on Voyager's holographic doctor, Torres comes up with an idea that may allow them to contact the crew of the trapped ship, which, in turn, may provide clues to their own predicament. Torres' plan works, but when they finally hear from the other ship, they discover that it's Voyager itself! They've been looking at a distorted reflection of themselves and it's Voyager itself that's trapped in the singularity. Torres realizes that the ship must return to the "tear" in the singularity where they entered, and exit before the star collapses, forever trapping them inside. Using a dekyon beam fired from a shuttlecraft piloted by Janeway and Torres, they force the opening wide enough for Voyager to escape. Because of her tempered initiative and creative approach to saving the ship, Torres is given the Chief Engineer's post, and Lt. Carey is among the first to congratulate her. Errors and Explanations Internet Movie Database Revealing mistakes # When the Holographic Doctor is on the screen, you can see that he's visually distorted. When he moves away from the camera's POV, you can see him distort or warp further. This could be another side effect of the singularity on the EMH's projection system. Plot Misfires # Chakotay informs B'Elanna that she could have killed Mr. Carey because the bone fragments nearly entered his cerebellum. This is unlikely; the cerebellum is in the back of the head. I'm sure Chakotay meant to say cerebrum; that part is right up front. The impact could have disloged fragments from the back of the skull. Besides, Chakotay isn't a medical expert. Equipment Malfunctions # Tuvok tells Chakotay that B' Elanna was confined to her quarters. Chakotay rings her doorbell, and the door opens without her asking him in. Does confinement to quarters not allow you any privacy? Chakotay does have a higher security rating. Memory Failures # Chief Seska, the Bajoran Maquis woman seen here and in several other shows, is seen wearing a blue outfit. Blue outfits are worn by science officers. In her other appearances, she has worn yellow. Yellow outfits are worn by engineering and security officers. She could have been reassigned after the events depicted here. Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan nagroM nalA htieK on Friday, April 23, 1999 - 7:19 am: They decide to flood the area with "warp particles." I thought warp was a unit of speed, not a particle? This made as much sense to me as if the decision had been to flood the area with '60-miles-an-hour particles.' This is a reference to particles from the warp drive. # ScottN on Monday, May 17, 1999 - 11:07 am: I see no reason why a warp capable ship could not pass the event horizon of a black hole safely (so long as inertial dampers and Structural Integrity Field were on full), since the event horizon is simply the limit where light cannot escape the black hole due to gravitational effects (i.e. escape velocity exceeds c). So long as they avoid the singularity, and the (for lack of a better phrase) "virtual event horizon" where warp speed is not fast enough to escape the black hole, it should be doable. Assuming the warp drive doesn’t shred itself due to the gravitational stress! (In Star Wars, Han Solo suggested this was the likely outcome of activating a ship’s hyperdrive while still within the gravitational field of a planet.) # NarkS on Monday, August 14, 2000 - 10:29 pm: Janeway says "we've cleared Voyager" well after they leave the shuttlebay. Just what does "clearing" Voyager mean? Jwb52z on Tuesday, August 15, 2000 - 12:53 am: Clearing Voyager means they're completely out of it and in no danger of hitting it by moving in some way. # Torres says they'll have a lot of time to discuss it if they fail. Why? Can't they send another shuttle and widen the rupture again? Jwb52z on Tuesday, August 15, 2000 - 12:53 am: The reason that they'd have a lot of time to discus it is that the closer you get to a black hole time slows down to an infinitessimal rate eventually. # So why DOES going away from the singularity end up bringing you back to it? Jwb52z on Thursday, August 17, 2000 - 2:20 pm: I looked at it like this. Since the sensors were being fooled by the effects from the singularity they may not have been travelling away from it even if the sensors said so and the gravity may have been making them go around in circles. # Why doesn't Torres know about the letter in her permanent file? Are they as hard to get to as they are today? Jwb52z on Thursday, August 17, 2000 - 2:20 pm: Did you ever get to look at your permanent record? I sure never did. # Tricorder on Thursday, March 01, 2001 - 11:15 pm: Janeway doesn't let Paris pilot the shuttle because she needed an expert in temporal mechanics, and unless he was hiding his credentials, that's not him. Janeway then piloted said shuttle. The line I paraphrased contradicts all the later instances in which Janeway says temporal mechanics give her headaches. Here she is able to hold her own on the topic, working with B'Elanna to reason their way out of the anomaly. She never "gets a headache" and seems to establish temporal mechanics as one of the scientific areas in which she knows what she is talking about. Jwb52z on Friday, March 02, 2001 - 12:44 pm: A person can know about a subject but thinking about it too much can give them a headache because it is complicated and confusing. She might understand temporal mechanics, but it also might be just enough to get her through a situation if it is simple. FANDOM Users Equipment Malfunctions # Firesnowe on Friday May 17 2019 - 02:01: Janeway says " Sometimes you just have to punch your way through. Mister Paris, full impulse power. " Paris makes the ship's blue warp engines glow instead of the red impulse engines. Usually Voyager must elevate its warp nacelles in order to use them, but not today. SeniramUK 14:58, May 17, 2019 (UTC) Perhaps Paris was either using the warp core to provide extra power for the impulse drive, a modified warp field to punch through the wall, or both. Besides, Voyager used the warp drive, without elevating the nacelles, to kill off the virus affecting the bio neural packs in Learning Curve. Category:Episodes Category:Voyager